[kictanet] Education and Our Future

[Esther Muchiri]

Daktari

Thanks for sharing your journey. I like what you said: "I fell in love with
history of art studying architectural designs from such eras as Gothic,
Baroque etc. I never pursued either history of Art or architecture because
my friends stopped me.  Asking me questions like where will you work?"

What if, during those days, there was a system that provided you with career
information on Architecture? What if the system had a way of linking you
with real architects who shared their real-life experiences and allowed you
to job-shadow them? I am sure you would not have listened to your friends,
and we would be admiring buildings in Nairobi designed by you! To me,
linking our subjects (be it in high school or university) to the real world
of work is what is missing. 

As we reform our education system, we must create these linkages - at the
lowest level possible.

Esther 

-----Original Message-----
From: bitange at jambo.co.ke [mailto:bitange at jambo.co.ke] 
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 11:25 PM
To: Esther Muchiri; kictanet
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Education and Our Future

Esther,
Career choice is much more complex than we all think. When I was in grades
school, I wanted to be a teacher. Reason. Teachers were the only people who
wore shoes in our village. When I broke my arm and taken to hospital, I saw
a doctor for the first time and I loved what they did. They were more
cleaner in their white overcoats. And so I wanted to be a doctor.

Later in life I came to Nairobi and visited an uncle who was a chief
accountant. I wanted to an accountant too because my uncle seemed to be
doing nothing but sitting and ordering people around.

I went to US for college. Here I was made to study courses that had nothing
to do with my dreams. Courses like critical thinking, philosophy,
psychology, sociology, history of art, music  etc.  These were required
before you chose your career of choice. I fell in love with history of art
studying architectural designs from such eras as Gothic, Baroque etc. I
never pursued either history of Art or architecture because my friends
stopped me.  Asking me questions like where will you work? 

I should have done what I wanted. To date I get mesmerised when I see any
beautiful architectural designs. I had discovered my talent but listened to
short sighted friends. They perhaps did not know just like I was confused. I
would have been the best architect.

The import of my story is that our institutions rush our students far too
fast to decide their lifelong careers.  Today we have engineers and doctors
working as bank clerks. This has led to hyper inflation of educational
qualification. Where work that requires high school level it is done by
graduates. Where we needed graduates we have doctoral candidates. Where will
this inflation stop?

Let us reform our educational system.


Ndemo.



Sent from my BlackBerryR

-----Original Message-----
From: "Esther Muchiri" <emuchiri at andestbites.com>
Sender: "kictanet"
<kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke>Date: Fri, 5 Oct
2012 21:42:42 
To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Education and Our Future

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